Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

March 18, 2022

Reading the Megillah in the Ruins of a Ukrainian Synagogue

Lviv’s Golden Rose.

The city of Lviv in northwestern Ukraine—formerly known as Lwów, Lemberg, or, to Jews, Lemberik—was once the regional capital of eastern Galicia and a major center of Jewish life. Built in 1582 by an Italian Christian architect, its elegant Golden Rose (Turei Zahav) synagogue was desecrated and partially destroyed by the Nazis, and then repurposed as a warehouse by the Soviets. But it was used once again Wednesday evening, on the holiday of Purim, to read the scroll of Esther. Carrie Keller-Lynn writes:

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